Looking across the landscape of contemporary culture

Speaking the truth

I might as well post the second half of the sermon, which has its own distinctive theme: the need for all those working in the media to witness to the truth, however difficult that may be.

But there is a broader truth to the Decem Rationes controversy. It’s not just that Christians should use the media to witness to Christian truth, it’s that the very purpose of the communications media is to witness to truth. Not just Christian truth, any truth, the truth of whatever is at hand. You might dismiss this as a romantic fantasy. I’m like Toby Young in his book ‘How to lose friends and alienate people’. He crossed the Atlantic in search of these heroic New York newspapermen, whose only concern was to speak truth to power. He ended up working on the gossip column at Vanity Fair.

It’s easy to be cynical. But my impression of people in the media is that they are still full of idealism. It’s just that the ideals get suffocated by other influences. There are the long-term pressures that you might call ‘cultural’ or ‘political’: to turn the news media into an arm of the entertainment industry; to manipulate the media for political or commercial ends, etc. But for you as individuals working in the media the challenges are probably more short term and personal: worries about contracts, budgets, deadlines; editorial pressures from above; tensions between colleagues; worrying about the present project or the future career; the pressure to dumb down, to oversimplify, to sensationalise.

The pressure to frame the story in a way that betrays its essential meaning, or to follow a story you know is trivial just because others are following it. All of this makes it difficult on a day-to-day basis to hold on to the ideals that brought you here in the first place. Difficult even to keep to the most basic principle in media ethics: to tell the truth.

It’s the same for the church, especially for her leaders and representatives. We are called to witness to the truth. Not just the truth of Christian faith, but also the truth of the present situation – including our failures and mistakes. Nothing can be gained from hiding the truth. It’s only a love of truth, even of difficult truths, that will save us, and will help others to trust us.

So what can we do? Well, here are two thoughts from the Scriptures. First, let’s keep our integrity. It doesn’t mean we will avoid every compromise, or live up to every one of our ideals. But at the very least let us not go against our conscience in the workplace, and let us make sure that we don’t cross that fundamental ethical line of speaking or writing what is not true. St Stephen was killed simply because he told others what he had seen: ‘I see the Son of Man Standing at the Right Hand of God’. He was killed for telling the truth. We may not seek martyrdom, but we can still seek the truth in the highly pressured circumstances of our work.

Second, let’s preserve our Christian faith. St Stephen only managed to endure this ordeal because he was filled with the Holy Spirit and because his gaze was fixed on Heaven. I don’t mean that you should fall on your knees and gaze into the heavens whenever you have a tense moment in the newsroom. But you need to be rooted in something deeper than the immediate demands being made on you each day. You need to be rooted in your faith. This involves the simplest of decisions: to practice your faith, to pray each day, to speak about your Christian faith with others — if the moment arises: that you are a Christian, that you are a Catholic, that it matters to you. These aren’t obligations or burdens, they are the foundations that make it possible for you to stay steady during all the madness of the working week. They are the same foundations that gave St Edmund Campion the passion he needed to print his illicit text, and the courage to endure his martyrdom.

7 Responses

Hi Fr Stephen, thanks, again for a great post. Your piece about ‘you need to be rooted in something deeper than the immediate demands being made on you each day’ was very appropriate to my present circumstances. I found it very inspiring. I am sure I am not alone in finding talking to others about my faith a challenge at times – a question of ‘picking your moment’, I find.

Truth is one of the cornerstones of life.
The field of journalism is easily spotted for untruths, but in reality, each of us must live a life of truth and not waiver. One of the things that has angered me so quickly in my work has been knowing that others have shown a lack of candor or more agregiously made a false representation.
I get angry now just thinking about certain misrepresentations, which is a personal failing that I continue to work on (the anger).
Thank you Father Stephen, for this enlightening blog.

Great blog thank you.
I have just completed a short ‘mental health and well being awareness’ course, it was ran by a trained mental health nurse who has decided to help people who are struggling with their mental well being, by not just alleviating symptoms with drugs, but by tackling the root cause of their illness and wellbeing from within. I am in training as a Health Worker.

The parts of the course which gripped me the most, were about self empowering people to re-discover their inner truth. To be aware of, and at the same time go beyond cause and emotion and reaction.

There is a reality central and outside of all our daily lives which is truth. Then there is us with mind:- emotion, thought, feeling, reaction and expression, which has a tendency to see the truth from our own perspective. To flavour or enhance or distort it with our own intellects.

One would imagine for a priest especially, as well as for lay people, from beyond the deepest place of contemplation stillness and prayer, inner wisdom and truth will eventually and naturally reveal itself. Then its all down to honest and truthful expression.

Maybe now ‘fag breaks’ have been abolished, press offices and journalists should take prayer breaks!
:O)

fab. Look forward to it. Just a brainstorm Why not have priests doing outreach:- taking corporate prayer days or retreat to enhance mental well being and performane in the work place for a large donation. What a brilliant way to raise funds for a Charity of your choice whilst spreading the gospel and raising awareness of the Catholic faith. :O)

A post about silence and contemplation in coprorate life would be very interesting. I value the few minutes I before I go to work get in the chapel of the busy hospital I work in; it helps me to try to put things in perspective. For those who do not adhere to any faith, a few minutes spent in contemplation may go some way to improving their mental health as well as their spiritual health.

About this blog

Looking across the landscape of contemporary culture - at the arts, science, religion, politics, philosophy; sorting through the jumble; seeing what stands out, what unsettles, what intrigues, what connects, what sheds light. Father Stephen Wang is a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Westminster, London. He is currently Senior University Chaplain, based at Newman House Catholic Chaplaincy. [Banner photo with kind permission of Matthew Powell]

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